college conference
During the weekend of October 17-19, hundreds of students from several campuses traveled to Latham Springs Camp for this fall’s College Conference. The messages presented over the three days focused on the topic of having a vision of Christ and the Church.

The All-Inclusive Christ

To understand the full picture of the all-inclusiveness of Christ, we must first have a realization regarding the crucial need for a heavenly vision. This may not come easily; in fact, we should pray to be unloaded of prior concepts in order to be completely unveiled to the Lord. So, what is this vision?

This divine vision is of God’s heart’s desire, God’s purpose, God’s economy, the announcement of the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel, and the church. The eternal purpose seen in Ephesians 3:11 is the reality of God dispensing Himself into His chosen people to gain a counterpart for Christ. To comprehend the incredible extensiveness of Christ, the Scriptures must not be viewed as mere doctrine; they must be viewed as reality. When Christ becomes our reality, he becomes everything to us. In the Bible, the Lord Jesus is described as dozens of items. He is our life (Colossians 3:4), our sufficient grace (1 Corinthians 15:10), and even the crumbs under the table (Matthew 15:27).

For us to experience our vision of who Christ the All-inclusive One, God has provided us with some practical handles. Four elements that equip believers to experience this vision are the word of God, the blood of Christ, the Spirit, and the church as the Body of Christ.

The Word of God

When we contact the Lord through the word, we become branches of the true vine. Abiding in the vine is something we can experience daily as we continually pursue direct contact with God. To have a practical experience of Christ, it is important to spend time with the Lord privately. Reading the Bible is not a mere reciting of words or an interpretation of doctrine, but it is a genuine experience of God’s breathing (2 Timothy 3:16). That the Bible contains God’s breath is a fairly new concept to me. In our Christian life, we often turn to the Bible during struggles or problems, but there is a greater purpose to reading God’s word: Gaining more of Christ comes from touching the Lord through His word. By taking in the Lord’s word and letting that word abide in us, we will discover the riches of the Bible.

The Blood of Christ

The next element needed to experience this vision is the precious blood of Christ. Christians generally have an objective view of the blood of Christ as the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins. While this is certainly true, there is a very subjective way for us to experience what His blood means. Oftentimes, it can seem difficult to come forward and confess to the Lord when we sin. In these situations, the interposing of the Lord’s blood can be directly applied. On the cross, every debt was paid in order for us to experience constant fellowship with the Lord, even when sins interfere. The point that amazed me the most about this is that the Lord doesn’t just forgive our sins; He forgets them (Hebrews 8:12). Jesus’s blood doesn’t just excuse the stain of sin. It removes the stain in its entirety.

The Spirit

The Spirit, the reality of Christ, is another divine equipment needed in the Christian life. By His resurrection, Christ became the life-giving Spirit that abides in the believers (John 14:16-20). The qualification of a genuine Christian is simple: is Christ living in you? (Col 1:27). When we realize this, we experience a big turn from knowing Christ outwardly to knowing Christ inwardly. Instead of asking what Jesus would do in a certain situation, we begin to ask what Jesus is doing inside of us. Rather than making decisions based on if they are “right” or “wrong,” we bring every situation to Christ when we walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25).

The Church

The final component of this vision is the church, which encompasses the will, good pleasure, and eternal purpose of God. Being an individual Christian is impossible; we need to be built up with other believers if we are to express the fullness of His one body (Ephesians 1:22-23). 1 Corinthians 12:12 depicts the Lord as the corporate Christ—just as the body is one yet has many members, so also is the Christ. God’s eternal purpose is wholly centered on the church as the Body of Christ. As long as we hold to the common faith, doctrinal opinions, practices, and teachings become secondary.  Insisting on one religious tradition or resisting a certain practice is not God’s intention. His heart’s desire is just to keep the oneness of the Body (Ephesians 4:3-4).

This conference showed us the equipments that we need to enter into a full, rich experience of Christ, to not only know the truth, but to actuate it in our daily lives. I encourage all those who didn’t get to hear the messages (and those that did) to listen to them.

By M. Cannizzo 

 

 

 

 

 

Mikaela Cannizzo
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